[MD] Intellect's Symposium

[John Carl]

On Sun, Jan 24, 2010 at 9:11 PM, Khoo Hock Aun <khoohockaun at gmail.com>wrote:


>
> The contention that the intellectual level arose, alone with the Greeks,
> from an Oriental/Eastern position is absolutely laughable, if one if
> familiar with the complex philosophies that developed in India and China.
>

Or if you've ever read  the book of Job - the oldest book in the bible.

I call the book of Job the old testament, and everything from Gen to Rev,
the new, but that's just me.


> Any one making that assertion would not be taken seriously in this side of
> the world. In my readings of ZAMM and LILA, I did not get the impression
> that Pirsig took such a position. Alarm bells in my head would have gone on
> otherwise.
>

That's a good way of saying it.  I know exactly what you mean.  I completely
agree with Pirsig as I read him, but reading his quotes applied by those
with axes to grind sometimes leaves me shaking my head in disbelief.

>
> Mary, bridge building aside, or even trying to come to a better
> understanding of Buddhism, Pirsig was trying to address the deficiencies in
> Western civilisation and the negative results that its amoral SOM-dominated
> intellectual level has brought about, and in my view, in its imposition on
> a vulnerable Eastern civilisation that may not have built the necessary
> instruments for a proper check and balance.
>
>
I believe that great value is conveyed by standing on a metaphysical
platform outside of the one you' re born into.  That is, seeing that there
is a valid Eastern way of life, as well as a Western view of life, brings us
to the question of "how do we know which is best?"  Which leads to the
insight that Quality, transcendant value, is necessary for all perception.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Khoo, I find much Quality in your
postings!

John




> Best regards
> Khoo Hock Aun
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, Jan 25, 2010 at 11:24 AM, David Thomas <
> combinedefforts at earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> > Mary,
> > > Can you guess where this is going? :)
> > Yes, absolutely.  I read your other post to Khoo already and in general
> > agree. ZaMM, in part, is a tale of what can happen when an Ego is wounded
> > early and often.
> >
> > > It is a profoundly Western idea to say that Orientals (or Indians or
> > > Eskimos) are evolutionarily inferior if they lack our Greek
> intellectual
> > > inheritance.  Where did Pirsig ever say that?  He didn't.
> >
> > I agree he did not. But he did point initially to the Greeks as the
> source
> > of SOM and SINGLE SOURCE of the emergence of the intellectual level.
> Later
> > he wobbled on that in some comment somewhere I recall but did not clearly
> > dismiss his single source claim. Many people, Bo in particular, have
> > pounded
> > on that "Greeks and Greeks only" intellectual emergence drum, forever. I
> > and
> > others have pointed out the CONSEQUENCES of PIRSIG'S claim over and over
> to
> > no avail.
> > > Kidding aside, the Intellectual Level is a STATIC Level.
> > You pointed out (I think, but I may be wrong) that you prefer MoValue to
> > Quality. I prefer stable to static. Pirsig uses both synonymously but
> > static
> > implies more rigidity to me, not as plastic. I prefer saying the
> > intellectual level is the most dynamic, but it is also the most unstable.
> >
> > Dave
> >
> >
> >
> >
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>
>
> --
>
> khoohockaun at gmail.com
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